Private George Ritchie looks at his sheet-covered body before reentering it during his World War II NDE.
Private George Ritchie came down with the flu during World War II. In the army hospital, his fever peaked at 106.5 degrees. That night, as in a dream, he awoke and jumped out of bed. Behind him, he said later, he saw what looked like a dead man wearing his ring. Out in the hall, a nurse walked right through him. In the next instant, he was flying through the night. When he tried to touch a phone line, his hand could not grasp it. Confused by his ghost-like state, he flew back to the hospital.
George flitted from room to room, looking at each sleeping man. At last, he found his own body, covered by a sheet. All at once the room seemed to fill with light. George saw scenes from his life flash by. Then he saw wonderful new worlds beyond earth. “Look at all I have missed,” George told himself. Then he slipped back inside his own body.
Seeing signs of life in the “corpse,” a doctor injected George with a strong drug. In what the doctor called “a miracle,” life surged back. Although George had been “dead” for nine minutes, his brain was not harmed. After the war, his NDE led him to the task of caring for mental patients. He returned from the dead, he said, to “learn about man and then serve God.” He assured patients who came to him with similar tales that they were not insane.1
Private George Ritchie looks at his sheet-covered body before reentering it during his World War II NDE.
George Ritchie would enjoy a painting that hangs in Venice, Italy. Hieronymus Bosch painted the Ascent of the Blessed more than five centuries ago. The work shows the souls of the dead moving upward through a long tunnel. The tunnel leads to a pure yellow light and a divine being. People who have NDEs believe that death frees the soul to travel toward that healing light.
Kimberly Clark Sharp of Kansas knows about the power of that light. When she was twenty-two, she collapsed on a sidewalk. At first, she said, she found herself lost in a dense, gray fog. Then the fog vanished as the world flooded with light. “It was so bright, the sun is not as bright, yet it didn’t hurt my eyes,” she remembers. “It filled up everything, and I … was back with my Creator.” Kimberly felt a sense of love beyond anything she had ever known. “It was heaven, more than ecstasy,” she says. “It was a reunion of the highest order.”2
Most accounts of NDEs repeat these feelings. People are aware of leaving their bodies, often by floating outward. They can hear loved ones crying over their death. Instead of being frightened or in pain, they feel at peace. Many say they hear beautiful music. Long-dead friends appear to assure them that all is well. The world beyond this one, the astral travelers say, is hard to picture. The living cannot imagine a world without limits of time and space.
Many astral travelers say they fly at high speed through a very dark tunnel, cave, or deep well. One person said it was like “I was moving very, very fast in time and space. I was traveling through a tunnel. It didn’t look like a tunnel, but when you’re in a tunnel, all you see is blackness around you.”3
People who have experienced an NDE feel a kinship with this five-hundred-year-old painting. Hieronymus Bosch called his masterpiece Ascent of the Blessed.
Many people who report OBEs and NDEs say they soar through a dark tunnel. In time, the surrounding darkness gives way to a bright light that attracts them toward the end of the tunnel.
A light appears far ahead of the travelers. As the light grows brighter, they see that it comes from a warm, loving being. Many think of the being as God. A wise voice counsels and teaches them. Sometimes they are allowed to view their lives from birth onward. This life review flashes past like a film run at high speed.
A moment later, the NDE reaches a turning point. Death lies on the far side of a fence, a river, or beyond a line of tall trees. If you cross over, the voice says, you cannot come back. Many say they yearn for the peace that awaits “over there.” They choose life, they say, because they still have work to do. Making that choice returns them to their bodies.
Many who have NDEs wonder if the experience was real. Hoping to prove that they are sane, they seek out others who have taken the same journey. Accepting the truth of their NDEs changes their lives. Given a new start, they pack each day with joy and good works. Because they no longer fear death, they begin to live life to the fullest. People who had never before experienced deep religious feelings develop a strong new faith.6
Do NDEs give us a true picture of what happens when we die? No one knows for sure. After all, we have only the words of those who have escaped almost certain death. For their part, scientists reject events that cannot be tested in a laboratory. For the moment, all we can do is wonder, hoping to learn more.
People who claim to have had an NDE often say their life flashes before their eyes.